CPU setup? What is better

[taltos1]

Hello, I am hoping someone can help me make sense of this. I am looking to get a cheap barebones PC and am stuck on which CPU's to go with:

-Two physical Intel P4 Xeon 3.2Ghz
-Two physical Intel Xeon Dual Core 2Ghz
-One physical Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz

Which one of the three setups would be overall faster? I will mainly be using it for design and video editing, and I do a lot of multitasking.

Thanks a lot

 

[Arkaign]

The 3rd, by far. Don't even ask why, it just is, a lot.

 

[nerp]

Get the newest quad core chip.

 

[exar333]

Option 3. This will also give an easy opportunity to upgrade the CPU easily down thw road to a faster quad.

 

[zeeon2003]

Option 3.

However for video editing, I would highly recommend Core i7. A mid range Core 2 Quad processor like the Q9550 costs only $10 less vs a Core i7 920, but Core i7 performance in video and 3D rendering is much higher; the Intel X58 chipset boards are usually more expensive than mainstream motherboards based on the P45/P35, but the X58 platform is feature rich with plenty of bells and whistles.

Core i7 for video, 3D, and multi tasking (it can process 8 threads at a time vs 4 threads for Core 2 Quad) is the best performing proc and you should definitely consider opting for that; price will be slightly higher vs Core 2 Quad but should be worth that extra.

 

[dflynchimp]

there is absolutely no reason for you to even fathom getting a two chip solution. Especially the old P4 chips are bordering on worthless at this point. The Quad is the only thing you should consider if you want more than two cores.

 

[Pelu]

go opteron... is a joke ok, but the third one sounds drooling...